Safety

Police: NYC Terror Suspect Strikes School Bus

NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio and Police Commissioner James O'Neill discuss the Tuesday truck attack that killed eight people and injured at least a dozen others. Screenshot from NYC press conference video

NEW YORK — Four people on a school bus were injured in the deadly truck attack in New York City on Tuesday, police said.

The incident occurred just after 3 p.m. New York Police Commissioner James P. O'Neill said in a press conference that a 29-year-old man driving a rented Home Depot pickup truck entered a bike path in Manhattan’s West Side and struck multiple pedestrians and cyclists. The truck then collided with a school bus, injuring two children and two adults who were on board.

Video footage from a bystander at the scene shows the bus, a Type A model, with a massive indentation in the right side.

O’Neill said that after the truck driver struck the school bus, he left the vehicle, “brandishing two handguns.” A police officer confronted the suspect and shot him in the abdomen. The subject, whose identity was not immediately released, was wounded and transported to a hospital. O’Neill noted that a paintball gun and a pellet gun were recovered at the scene.

In the press conference, New York Fire Commissioner Daniel Nigro said that six people were pronounced dead at the scene, and two others died at the hospital. At least twelve people suffered serious but not life-threatening injuries.

“The injuries are what you may expect as a truck went at high speed down that bicycle path and struck bicyclists and pedestrians,” Nigro said.

Authorities described the attack as terrorism.

“Let me be clear [that] based on the information we have at this moment, this was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror aimed at innocent civilians, aimed at people going about their lives who had no idea what was about to hit them,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said in the press conference.

Carmen Fariña, chancellor of the New York City Department of Education, also issued a statement about the incident on Tuesday.

“Today there was an act of terrorism in close proximity to several schools in lower Manhattan,” Fariña said. “We stand with the entire city as we mourn this senseless loss of life. We are grateful to the first responders and school staff who work tirelessly to keep our schools and communities safe. Ongoing guidance and trauma counselors will be provided across schools to those in need tomorrow.”

The New York City Police Department and the FBI are investigating the attack.